This invention relates to apparatus for removing the coating of an optical fiber.
In recent years the possibility of practical optical communication systems has become prosperous due to the technological advances in optical fibers that can transmit light with low loss. In such a system in order to efficiently bond together independent optical fibers or to connect a light source or a light receiver to optical fibers, it is necessary to remove or strip the protective coatings formed by applying a chemical substance onto the optical fibers. Usually, nylon or polyethylene is used as the coating material. Accordingly, it is important to efficiently remove the coatings from the optical fibers without injuring the surface of the fiber clad or the primary body of the optical fiber for effecting transmission.
One example of a prior art apparatus for stripping the optical fiber coating is disclosed in H. Murata et al paper presented before "First European Conference on Optical Fiber Communication", I.E.E. 16-18, September 1975, entitled "Splicing of Optical Fiber Cable on Site". According to the coating stripper disclosed in this paper, the coating on the portions of the optical fibers to be stripped are crumpled by a press head, and the coatings are cut by a pair of opposing blades. Thereafter, the optical fibers and the stripper are separated from each other, thereby removing the coatings. With such a stripper, however, as the blades are moved relative to the optical fibers during the stripping operation, it is difficult to maintain the gap between the cutting edges of the blades at a correct value. Moreover, the two blades often offset from the same plane, and the relative motion between the blades and the optical fibers during the stripping operation often becomes non-linear. For this reason, with the coating stripper described above, it is difficult to efficiently remove the coating without injuring the fiber clads.
In addition to the coating stripper described above, the following methods have been used. According to one method, the coatings on the optical fibers are burned off, while according to another method, the coatings are manually slit by a sharp knife blade and then removed by hand. However, according to the former method, the coatings at portions not desired to be removed undergo extreme thermal deformation, whereas according to the latter method, not only the stripping operation is troublesome but also there is a tendency of injuring the optical fiber clads.